Dr.

Janos DRABIK

Golden Mean in the Eco-Society

In the recent two decades the ecological and social crisis has continually

worsened. In this century global warming is expected to grow, changing the

Earth’s climate, causing rising sea levels, catastrophic weather extremes, some

kind of epidemics of infectious diseases, decreasing the arable land and the

cultural capacity. The extreme neo-liberal financial and economic system, which

structured around the brutally competitive view of “grow or die”, is dominating

now the world. In this extreme neo-liberal system the enterprises are driven by

the endless seeking of profit for capital expansion at the expense of all other

considerations. In this they have no real alternative of chasing the profit,

otherwise their equally driven competitors will vanquish them. These state of

affairs are standing radically at odds with the capacity of our planet to sustain

the complexity of life. The ‘usury-civilization of this interest-capitalism’, which

gives preference to commercial turnover, consumerism, speculation, and

“shareholder value” to real-value-generating production, will plunder the planet,

and it is to be imagined that the evolutionary clock will be turned back to a time

when only simpler organism could exist.

 For this reason we must strive to eliminate domination, be it in matters of

race, gender, sexual identity and class exploitation. In our present world the

immediate cause of the ecological disorder is the set of social relations, what we

are defining as interest-driven chrematistic-capitalism. This system

functioning on the collectivist principle, and an anonym group divides the

property from the personal owner. In this sense, the state-property is an anonym

one, without a responsible human being as an owner. And the interest-capitalist

private-property is also an anonym one, where the natural human person is

separated from the property. The power-elite rules in both kinds of collectivist

system. In a socialist one, he is ruling by the help of the state ownership. In an

interest-capitalist system - in the chrematistic - he rules by the help of the

anonym corporation and bank ownership without social responsibility. In both

collectivist systems – socialism and chrematistic - the power-elite maintain

social control through monopoly of the use of state force or financial measures

and instruments.

We are witnessing how a blind social mechanism, the so-called

‘market’, that is, the selfish interest of the international financial community is

turning soil into sand, covering fertile land with concrete, poisoning air and

water, and producing climatic and atmospheric changes. If we want really

understand what is happening with our Earth, we cannot ignore the impact that

hierarchical and class-society, more exactly: the speculative interest-capitalism

has on the natural world. Economic growth, making endlessly more money from

money, gender and ethnic domination combined with corporate, state and

bureaucratic interests are shaping much more the future of the natural world,

then any kind of privatistic forms of spiritual or religious self-regeneration.

Forms of the selfish and narrow-minded financial domination must be

confronted by collective action of major social movements.

It is doubtful, whether an absolutely free economy existed at any time and

can exist in the future in a long run. It has proved to be false belief that incessant

growth of the economic wealth expressed in “shareholder value” must be an

absolutely good thing, irrespective of what has grown and who, if anyone, has

benefited. In the real world there are countries with a mixed economy to a

certain degree, because private and public ownership, free market and planned

economy, freedom and state constrains of freedom, are complementaries rather

than opposites. The good and just governmental, or social constrain in a true

democracy with productive economy is the freedom of the majority to assert

social responsibility contrary to the particular interest of any social minority –

first of all the international financial community. This financial community has

monopolized for himself the control over the central banks and the global

monetary system as a whole.

 The neo-conservative kind of economy, which is rather can be called

‘chrematistic’, dominated by a private global monetary monopoly and extreme

free enterprise system with anonym private ownership, cannot exist without

radical change any longer. With the global monopoly of the private monetary

power, the really free market with its relatively large range of competition

disappeared in the most important sectors of the economy. There is no

international world-wide anti-trust law restricting the global monetary monopoly

of transnational financial community. As to the real economy, namely the

productive sector, only the anti-trust law, a governmental constrain, was able in

the last century to preserve the free market for a transitory period. Big business

demands for his speculation an absolutely free range of movement globally, an

almost absolute economic freedom to gain larger profit. Despite of its rhetoric

about the free market, the big business threatens constantly the free market with

total destruction through monopolistic market practices, if larger profits and

interests can be made in such a way.

The private monetary monopoly of the international financial community

and the unrestricted anonym private ownership, that is, the very basis of the neo-

conservative enterprise system is unjustifiable both in theory and practice.

Private ownership in a large-scale enterprise is a fiction for the purpose of

enabling functionless owners to live parasitically on the labors of others.

Therefore it is just to socialize with the help of a mixed economy and

ownership, the wealth, which is the result of collective effort of the whole

society and the generations one after the other.

Profitability alone, and the unrestricted speculation with money, securities

and derivatives are not conducive to the wealth and well-being of the whole

society, and the humankind. Profitability and speculation do not lead to moral

and cultural enrichment of the majority. The neo-conservative free market, with

its anonym private ownership is compelled to be only profit seeking and

necessarily aims at a narrow and selfish end. Anonym private enterprise is not

concerned with what it produces but only what it gains from production and

speculation. In a neo-conservative, totally free market system nobody is

responsible for anybody but himself. In this neo-conservative system everything

is equated with everything else by quantification. Qualitative distinctions of

vital importance for man and society are suppressed. For this reason the neo-

conservative free enterprise and so-called market system with its global

speculation are the institutionalization of extreme individualism and non-

responsibility.

Since the healthy economic and social life is a living reconciliation,

necessarily a mixture of opposites, we must develop an optimized, mixed

economy with just social control and the best possible socialization process,

both in regional and global levels. We need a mixed-economy, the combination

of real democracy and efficient management on reformed basis of ownership,

avoiding unnecessary centralization and the intervention of the organized state

and private power. Private ownership in our present advanced society derives

very large benefits from the infrastructure, which has built up through public

expenditure. Hence society ought to receive a certain part of the profits, of large

scales of private enterprise, not by means of profit taxes but by means of certain

percent obligatory ownership of the equity. Private ownership in the large-scale

enterprise or corporation must be restricted furthermore because it is divorced

from work and becomes more and more passive property for acquisition and

pure power. In small scale, and partly middle-scale enterprises private

ownership attached to a concrete managing person is natural, fruitful and just,

therefore it must be protected.

This healthy mixture ought to be a well-balanced system of social and

economic freedom and responsibility, which could express and enforce the

general interest of the whole society against the selfish particular interest of the

wealthy minority, that controls the monetary power and the multinational

corporations globally. With a social engine and brake system, we can perform

the simultaneous requirements of order and freedom. Without order, planning,

predictability, social control, accountancy, obedience, discipline, that is, without

general social responsibility everything disintegrates. Without freedom the

happy abandon and disorder and entrepreneurial venturing, the risk and gamble,
the creative imagination, the progressive innovation, without these everything

static and lifeless and does not develop and grow.

A mixed economy with impersonated ownership can give more freedom

of choice of objectives and can therefore be used for any purposes not only for

material and financial well-being, but also for moral and cultural enrichment of

the society. It is not restricted to forced and limitless economic growth and profit

necessarily combined with greed and envy. To get rid of these restricted

objectives is of vital importance for the future of humankind because unlimited

growth in our limited world is not only impossible but dangerous, as well.

Through greed and envy, it creates conflicts not only between individuals and

social strata but among nations, too. We are witnessing that it leads permanent

war and not to permanent peace.

Sustainable growth or sustainable resources?

Money or life? The humankind has to decide in the 21st century, which

will be the object of its devotion. Inequality and injustice are not accidental

results of global interest-capitalism, but they are its essential characteristics. In

an interest-capitalist regime, based on private monetary monopoly, money is

regarded as the measure of all value. The maximization of returns to financial

capital has become the interest-capitalist society’s main goal. There is no real
competition because this is mainly a monopolistic system. There is no real

individualism either, because the decision-making power is in the hands of a

small group, the so-called international financial community. This is the system

of chrematistic and in it materialism is nurtured as favored cultural norm.

Shareholder-value, stock prices and gross domestic products are the accepted

measures of the so-called progress and general well-being. Inflation of land and

stock-values are furthered while wages are held increasingly depressed.

Interest-capitalism favored institution is the publicly traded limited

liability corporation, which concentrates power in the hands of chief-corporate

executive, who is accountable only to absentee owners. These owners

themselves are guarded from public accountability for the decisions made on

their behalf. The legal structure of the corporation is compelled for pursuing the

unlimited growth. The living capital – human-, social-, institutional- or national

resources – is the ultimate source of all real wealth, despite of this fact, interest-

capitalism assigns no value to living capital and makes no accounting for its

depletion. Corporate ownership of the mass-media and financial control of the

politicians render democracy meaningless. The financial institutions controlled

by the transnational financial community rewrite laws to free themselves from

public regulations, economic borders. This internationally organized private

power is capable to eliminate competition through mergers, acquisitions and

other monopolistic and oligopolistic alliances.

 We are told by the organized money power that the fairest and most

effective way to end poverty is to expand the economic pie through economic

growth, this way improving the living standard of everyone. In fact the

economic growth we currently experience is destroying the real living wealth of

society and reducing the wealth of the world.

We are told that the global victory of interest-capitalism is a victory for

democracy and the market-economy, which is the fairest and most efficient

structure for distributing and allocating economic resources. In fact, interest-

capitalism is the mortal enemy of real democracy and real market economy

based on equal opportunity and free competition. Interest-capitalism is a system

that concentrates economic power in the hands of a small group to the exclusion

of the many, who are creating value with productive efforts. The ownership in

interest-capitalism is anonym, and this type of ownership is an engine of

destruction and upward redistribution. The organized private power ought to be

the servant of the natural persons and not the natural persons are the servants of

the organized private power, which is the power of a small and closed group

hiding in anonym legal entities. This organized private power structure in our

time has more power than the organized public power. This background „quasy

state” and its global shadow government control the formal states and

international organizations informally.

 In a society with mixed economy and direct democracy human rights and

political sovereignty reside in real concrete persons on the basis of one-person

one-vote. Civic associations facilitate the practice of direct democracy, but we

have to take into consideration that all civic associations in our time are

dependent on who is financing them. The state has financial measures through

the taxing monopoly. The organized private power has financial measures

through monetary monopoly, that is, creating money and credits and collecting

interest. Therefore, a civic association is either under the control of a state

organization or of a private organization belonging directly or indirectly to the

organized money power. In the reality there is only very few independent civic

organization.

Productive economy instead of chrematistic

Money is only a mediating medium of the economy. Money is society’s servant,

not its master, and is used only to facilitate productive investment and beneficial

exchange. In the eco-society financial speculation is strongly discouraged by

regulation and tax policy. From this follows, that finance is predominantly local

as are the majority of the enterprises and production. The different countries

trade their surplus production based on their comparative natural endowments.

Cultural and economic diversity are highly valued. Individual, local and national
economies are a mix of public and private ownership. Experience, culture,

information and technology are shared without obstacles among people,

communities and nations through scientific and electronic communication.

Each community or nation has the right to determine what and how much

it will trade, with whom, and under what circumstances. A fair and balanced

trade that serves the mutual interests of the trading partners has to be welcomed.

However, the eco-society has a natural preference for local production to

strengthen local control and economic security.

Only an eco-society with mixed economy and participatory

democracy can create a healthy and benign relationship to the natural world.

The creation of such a type of eco-society requires the elimination of all

hierarchy and delegitimation of all forms of discrimination. The humankind –

and Hungary - needs a mixed economy with real democracy and efficient

management to evolve a more democratic and dignified system of industrial

administration, a more human employment of machinery and technology, and a

more intelligent utilization of the fruits of human innovations, ingenuity and

efforts.